Marco Rubio: Gang of Eight’s immigration bill can’t pass the House

Sen. Marco Rubio acknowledged Tuesday on a conservative radio talk show that the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration reform bill won’t likely pass the Republican-led House.

The comments from Rubio, perhaps the most influential congressional Republican on immigration, illustrate the challenges facing the prospects for reform after months of private negotiations by a bipartisan coalition of senators produced a wide-ranging, 844-page bill.

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“The bill that’s in place right now probably can’t pass the House,” Rubio told Mike Gallagher, a nationally syndicated talk show host. “It will have to be adjusted, because people are very suspicious about the willingness of the government to enforce the laws now.”

He continued: “That is a very legitimate suspicion, it’s one that I share, and if there’s anything we can do to make [the bill] even tighter … that’s exactly what we should be working on.”

In a separate radio appearance Tuesday, Rubio elaborated on the challenges facing the legislation in the House, saying the enforcement mechanisms in the Senate legislation would need to be much stronger in order to pass the lower chamber.

One way to do that would be to require construction of a double-sided fence, which Rubio said he would support.

”I believe that double-fencing in the right places has been highly effective,” Rubio said on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

The Florida Republican called the Gang of Eight bill a “starting point” and urged opponents to propose changes to the bill, not try to kill it altogether.

“Let’s try to fix it,” Rubio said on Gallagher’s show. “Let’s try to change it, but to just say let’s defeat the whole thing, I don’t think that’s a productive approach either.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin marking up the bill next week, and it could hit the Senate floor in June. House Republicans have favored tackling reform in bite-sized pieces, rather than in one omnibus bill.

Senate immigration negotiators are hoping that a broad, bipartisan floor vote on passing comprehensive immigration reform will wage pressure on House Republicans to act on the bill.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reiterated that the legislation can win the support of a majority of both parties.

In his pitch to House Republicans, McCain said he tries to appeal to the “better angels of their nature” and stress the need for a solution for the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. But he also runs through the electoral math, arguing that Republicans need to push for immigration reform to be on the same “playing field” as Democrats in competition for Latino votes.

“We will not be able to compete for the Hispanic voter until this is done,” McCain said at an immigration forum hosted by the University of Southern California.